Tuesday round-up

AMY HOWE AUG 19, 2014 6:57 AM

Yesterday supporters of same-sex marriage urged the Court not to delay the implementation of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, striking down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage; in his own filing, the Virginia attorney general asked the Court to stay the lower court’s ruling but – like same-sex marriage supporters – asked it to move to decide the issue as soon as possible.  Lyle Denniston covered the developments for this blog; other coverage comes from Lawrence Hurley of Reuters.  In The Washington Post, Robert Barnes focuses on the Court’s 1972 order in Baker v. Nelson, a challenge to Minnesota’s denial of a marriage license to a same-sex couple, and what it might mean for the current challenges to state bans on same-sex marriage. 

Briefly:

• At Jost on Justice, Kenneth Jost looks at the style and jurisprudence of Justice Stephen Breyer, who earlier this month celebrated twenty years on the Court.  Among other things, Jost notes that Breyer is perhaps “Congress’s best friend” on the Court.
• The Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus recently filed their opening briefs in their challenges to the state’s 2012 redistricting.  Mary Troyan reports on the two groups’ arguments in a story for the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.
• At Re’s Judicata, Richard Re considers the Court’s discussion of relative standing in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, in which the Court held that lawyers and journalists lacked standing to challenge the government’s global surveillance program, and its possible impact on another government surveillance program.

A friendly reminder:  We rely on our readers to send us links for the round-up.  If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, or op-ed relating to the Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com.  Until the end of the summer, we will have twice-weekly round-ups (Tuesday and Thursday); daily round-ups will resume in the fall.  Thank you!

[Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among counsel to the petitioners in the Alabama redistricting cases.  However, I am not affiliated with the firm.]

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